Thermo-Hydraulics of Tube Banks With Porous Interconnectors Using Water as Cooling Fluid

Abstract

The present experimental study investigates the effect of tube-to-tube porous interconnectors on the pressure drop and heat transfer (Nu) of tube banks. A copper wire mesh porous medium connects successive tubes of the in-line and staggered arrangement of six rows of tubes. The tubes are subjected to constant and uniform heat flux and cooled by forced convection using water as a cooling fluid in the laminar flow range (100 < ReDuct < 625). The inline configuration with the tube-to-tube porous medium inter-connectors provides marginal enhancement of heat transfer and 12% reduction in the pressure drop penalty respectively, compared to tube banks without porous medium inter-connectors. Using numerical simulations the marginal heat transfer increase is attributed to contact resistance due to poor thermal contact between the tubes and the porous medium. Despite this, the staggered tube bank configuration exhibit 50% heat transfer enhancement, with the tube-to-tube porous medium inter-connectors. However, the pressure drop penalty is three times more than that for tube banks without porous medium interconnectors.